The past term has flown at such an accelerated rate .– I have found that every year seems to go faster and faster – no slowing down in the world of geography! At Gillingham School we always endeavor to do the best for our students and are always willing to try out new ideas to improve their knowledge and independent learning.

Key Stage 3

We have looked at all our Key Stage 3 lessons seeing where we can make improvements and implementing new teaching strategies. We have been trying to make the teaching experience more personal for the students and improve their independent study skills. This is being developed from KS3 onwards and carried on into KS4 and KS5.

The curriculum map we have designed, seen below, is set in a specific way. Most importantly it allows students to follow a natural progression building up skills and using them in a number of different ways. The progression also leads through to Key Stage 5. We are aiming to promote progression in a number of ways;

Depth of knowledge

Breadth of study

Complexity of concepts

Independent learning and research

An increase in spatial scale

Year7

Year8

Year9

Rainforest

Mapwork

Hazards 1 – volcanoes & earthquakes

Crime

Olympics

Tribes & Cultures

Population

Geographical research

Deserts

Shanty towns

Rivers

Feeding the world

Hazards 2 – extreme weather

Energy

Ice Age

Geographical research

Hazards 3 – tsunami

Why is Africa disconnected?

Climate change

Chindia

Coral reefs

Waste

Coasts

Geographical research

Stourhead

School based fieldwork

Disaster Management Day

School based fieldwork

Brecon Beacons

School based fieldwork

We must not forget that KS3 is the building blocks of a successful education. Key Stage 3 can be sometimes be forgotten about in this world of examinations at KS4 and 5. The young students at KS3 need the skills and knowledge to help them in their later geography education.

Barcelona Fieldtrip

The Barcelona AS Geography Fieldtrip took place between Monday 28th November – Friday 2nd December. The students gained a great deal from this fieldwork and the experiences and lessons learned from it are now examined in a unit worth 40% of their final AS grade. In total we took 57 Year 12 students who worked brilliantly throughout the five days out there – well done to all of you!

The trip focused on two topics – Extreme Weather and Rebranding. For extreme weather we looked at a dry river valley that experiences flash flooding in the Riera de Ribes region outside Sitges, thirty minutes south of Barcelona. For the past three years I have never seen any rain in this region but three weeks before we left they did have an extreme flash flood go through the area.

For rebranding we looked at two locations; El Ravel in Barcelona and the Priorat region. El Ravel is an area that is being rebranded with some flagship projects; the Rambla del El Ravel, the Barcelo 4* hotel, the Museum of Contemporary Arts and the university. Our student were investigating whether or not these flagship development projects had been a success of not.

The Priorat region is 120km south of Barcelona, a place depopulation due to tourism and an economic downturn in agriculture has afflicted the area. In recent years the region has been a world known wine growing part of Spain where many international wine awards have been won. Once again our students where looking at the success of this project on a poor area of Spain.

One again I would like to congratulate the students for their hard work and dedication this term – and especially to Andy, Lizzy, Mike, Adam and Emma who helped run the trip.

A’ Level Geography Blog

In the past week my fellow geographer, Adam Bettiss, has developed and put together two blogs for our A’Level classes; one focusing on the Year 13 unit of Life on the Margins and a case study blog for our Year 12 students. The great thing with both is that the students have control of what goes on the blog from their findings. This has been a great success and introduced students and staff (!) to the world of blogging – great stuff!

There has of course been the general day-to-day teaching which is where the real learning takes place – I have thoroughly enjoyed this term and the great work that the Geography Department have produced, well done to you all and have a fantastic Christmas.

This year I have had the chance to organise the A’Level field trip to Barcelona. I have organised many field trips over the years but this was my first overseas trip. At Gillingham School the Geography Department have been going to Barcelona for the last twelve years with much success. Initially it was quite daunting planning a trip overseas but I have had much help and guidance for which I am especially grateful for – thank you team!

For our A’Level the students are requested to undertake several days fieldwork which they are assessed for in January as part of an examination. Our focus for the trip was rebranding and extreme weather. Going to Barcelona lets us complete all these topics and at a much cheaper cost compared to the UK. We also complete our fieldwork with the Barcelona Field Studies Centre who are very experienced team of geographers run by Derek Geary.

Day one consists of an orientation tour of Barcelona city and a pre-fieldwork session outling the field trip.﻿

Day two is primarily the extreme weather day focusing on flash flooding at the River Ribes.

Day three is the rural rebranding day in the Priorat region of Spain looking at the success of the wine industry.

Day Four is the urban rebranding day in El Raval looking at the success of the flagship development projects.

After each day the students work extremely hard on looking at and evaluating their methods, results and conclusions. Well done and thank you to everyone involved – you were all brilliant!